Attachments
1.Introduction
Over the past few decades, the availability of infrastructure has increased significantly, particularly in the developing world. Rapid urbanization as well as the gradual rise in standards of living have sparked the demand for services and with it, the construction of new pipelines, electrical grids, roads, railways, schools, health facilities, et cetera.
Beyond the pressure to provide infrastructure to a growing and ever more urban population, a number of additional, compounding challenges manifest in urban areas around the globe. Rising urban informality and the sub-optimal, and often uncontrolled, sprawl of cities challenges governments to finance the extension of infrastructural networks to the urban fringes, resulting in increased per capita service provision costs due to the thinning consumer density. Exacerbating these challenges are issues related to a lack of studies on social needs, complex and cumbersome legal frameworks, decentralization and uncertain governmental competences, as well as chronic shortages in the financial resources available to local governments, all of which can lead to under-investment in the construction and replacement of built assets or in the extension of infrastructure to remote communities.
The existence of resulting fragile or inadequate infrastructure has grave consequences for local populations, especially those in vulnerable situations who depend on it to conduct their daily routines in already degraded and complex urban environments. Faulty connections to power grids, unsafe water pipes, distant hospitals, or crumbling roads endanger everyday life and result in additional time spent to procure safe(r) alternatives. These structures and their users are further threatened by climate change-induced impacts such as increasingly frequent and intense extreme weather events. Inadequate operational management and maintenance too can generate disruptions in service provision, prompting blackouts, load shedding and other service-limiting mechanisms.
When provided in a sustainable and resilient manner, however, infrastructure holds great potential to protect inhabitants from shocks and stresses and guarantee an uninterrupted delivery of basic services, including municipal, mobility and social services as well as utilities. As groups in vulnerable situations, like the urban poor, often settle in risk-prone – though more affordable – areas, properly designed and maintained infrastructure in hazard zones has the power to substantially scale down human and environmental vulnerability to disasters.
Strengthening critical facilities and infrastructures, such as hospitals, power plants, dams and bridges, as well as logistical entry and distribution points in and near urban centres, significantly reinforces capacities that are vital in both normal and emergency situations, enabling the avoidance of food scarcities, electricity outages, and sewage overflows.
Additionally, in the international development field, infrastructure has proven to play a critical role in economic growth and poverty reduction. Indispensable to the fulfilment of human needs and thus the functioning of societies and economies, infrastructure investment is leveraged to spur development by improving access to basic services.
With over half of the global population now living in cities and around 3 billion more people expected to reside in urban areas by 2050, UN-Habitat – as the United Nations agency responsible to act as a focal point on sustainable urbanization – commits to improving the lives of people in urban areas around the world. Grasping the necessity of providing access to basic services as a stepping stone to raise standards of living, UN-Habitat has over the past decades been strongly invested in the sound construction and management of infrastructure in order to consolidate service delivery. The agency’s Urban Basic Services Branch provides policy and technical support to countries and local authorities in the areas of water, sanitation, waste management, mobility and energy.
UN-Habitat’s City Resilience Profiling Tool (CRPT), through its methodology for building resilient urban environments, highlights the need for robust, safe and available infrastructure to ensure the accessibility and continuity of services and flows for all, in the face of any type of shock or stress, from natural to social or technological. Adopting a systemic, holistic approach to cities, the CRPT recognises that damage to the infrastructure of one sector can generate a cascading effect of breakdowns in others. The CRPT therefore goes beyond a physical and sector-based understanding of infrastructure and services and seeks to analyse the relationships between spatial nodes and relevant stakeholders across the entire urban system. Identifying vulnerabilities, synergies and interlinkages between the various networks, assets and institutions, this methodology lays the groundwork to develop evidence-based, people-centred recommendations to build urban resilience at the urban scale.
The Infrastructure Improvement Enhancer outlines how the CRPT understands and studies the adequacy of infrastructure in an urban setting and incorporates a list of indicators that can provide a starting point for local governments to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their urban infrastructure systems. Officials should consider complementing their reading of this Enhancer with information coming from various CRPT Enhancers and Guides to enable a comprehensive view on the intersection of infrastructure with other transversal issues.